Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

Solar Energy 84 (2010) 867878

www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Detailed analysis of the energy yield of systems with covered

sheet-and-tube PVT collectors
R. Santbergen a, C.C.M. Rindt a,*, H.A. Zondag b, R.J.Ch. van Zolingen a
a

Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
b
Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), P.O. Box 1, 1755 ZG Petten, The Netherlands
Received 8 October 2009; received in revised form 10 February 2010; accepted 25 February 2010
Available online 21 March 2010
Communicated by: Associated Editor Elias Stefanakos

Abstract
Solar cells have a typical eciency in the range of 520%, implying that 80% or more of the incident solar energy can be harvested in
the form of heat and applied for low-temperature heating. In a PVT collector one tries to collect this heat. In this work, the electrical and
thermal yield of solar domestic hot water systems with one-cover sheet-and-tube PVT collectors were considered. Objectives of the work
were to understand the mechanisms determining these yields, to investigate measures to improve these yields and to investigate the yield
consequences if various solar cell technologies are being used. The work was carried out using numerical simulations.
A detailed quantitative understanding of all loss mechanisms was obtained, especially of those being inherent to the use of PVT collectors instead of PV modules and conventional thermal collectors. The annual electrical eciencies of the PVT systems investigated were
up to 14% (relative) lower compared to pure PV systems and the annual thermal eciencies up to 19% (relative) lower compared to pure
thermal collector systems. The loss of electrical eciency is mainly caused by the relatively high uid temperature. The loss of thermal
eciency is caused both by the high emissivity of the absorber and the withdrawal of electrical energy. However, both the loss of electrical and thermal eciency can be reduced further by the application of anti-reective coatings. The thermal eciency can be improved
by the application of a low-emissivity coating on the absorber, however at the cost of a reduced electrical eciency.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: PVT collectors; PVT systems; PVT system yield; Solar thermal collector

1. Introduction
Solar cells have a typical eciency in the range of
520%, depending on the type of solar cell. This implies
that 80% or more of the incoming solar energy can be harvested in the form of heat. In a PVT collector one tries to
collect this low-temperature heat. This heat can be used in
a range of applications, for example tap-water heating and
space heating. A wide variety of PVT collector designs
exists. A comprehensive overview of at-plate PVT collectors and systems was given by Zondag (2008). Examples of
PVT collectors based on the concentration of sunlight were
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +31 40 2472978; fax: +31 40 2475399.

E-mail address: c.c.m.rindt@tue.nl (C.C.M. Rindt).

0038-092X/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.solener.2010.02.014

described by Coventry (2005) and Smeltink and Blakers

(2007).
Flat-plate collectors can be either glazed or unglazed
and either air or liquid can be used as heat transporting
uid. Either a sheet-and-tube plate (Saitoh et al., 2003)
or a channel plate (Chow et al., 2006) can be used to transfer the heat from the cells towards the uid. The yield of a
system with at-plate PVT collectors and water as a transporting uid was investigated numerically by de Vries
(1998) and Zondag et al. (2003). Several PVT collector
designs were considered for Dutch climatic conditions.
The unglazed PVT collector gives the highest electrical eciency, but its thermal performance is very poor. Zondag
concluded that the one-cover glazed sheet-and-tube design
represents a good compromise between electrical and

868

R. Santbergen et al. / Solar Energy 84 (2010) 867878

Nomenclature
A
Aeff
E
I sun
n
P
T
b
e
g
q
s

AM1.5 absorption factor ()

eective absorption factor ()
energy yield (kWh/m2y)
solar irradiance (W/m2)
refractive index ()
power (W)
temperature (C)
temperature coecient for electrical eciency
(1/C)
emissivity ()
eciency ()
packing density ()
transmittance ()

thermal yield and manufacturability. Also in the European

PVT Roadmap (PVT Roadmap, 2005) it was concluded
that the one-cover PVT collector with a liquid as heat
transporting uid, is the main market product for PVT collectors, with both tap-water heating and space heating
being the main applications. Also in the work presented
here, the focus was on solar domestic hot water systems
with one-cover sheet-and-tube PVT collectors.
The design considered here is shown schematically in
Fig. 1. At the heart there is the PV laminate with the solar
cells, generating electricity. The heat generated in the laminate is extracted by a copper sheet at the back. Connected
to this sheet is a serpentine shaped tube through which
water ows collecting the heat. In order to reduce heat loss
to the ambient, the backside is thermally insulated and at
the front there is a cover glass. The stagnant air layer provides thermal insulation. This design is similar to the design
of a glazed solar thermal collector with the spectrally selective absorber being replaced by a PV laminate.
The electrical eciency of a glazed PVT collector is
somewhat lower than the electrical eciency of a PV module, because of the presence of an extra cover. In addition,
the cell temperature will be inuenced by the amount of
heat collected by the uid. A lower cell temperature is
favorable for a higher electrical yield because of the negative temperature coecient of the electrical cell eciency.
The cell temperature, however, will be inuenced by the
system sizing i.e. the ratio between the PVT collector area
and the storage size and by the application dependent thermal load. Therefore it is impossible to conclude beforehand
whether there will be an electrical energy gain or loss. So
far, the inuence of the system sizing and the resulting uid
temperature on the electrical eciency was not studied in a
systematic way.
The thermal eciency of a PVT collector is lower than
the eciency of a thermal collector as well. This is caused
by a higher emissivity of the PV laminate on the one hand

col
e
inv
lam
max
prim
PV
PVT
SF
STC
sys
th

collector
electrical
inverter
laminate
maximum
primary
photovoltaic
photovoltaic/thermal
solar fraction
Standard Test Conditions
system
thermal

and a lower (eective) absorption factor on the other hand.

The total absorption factor is lower than that of a black
absorber, because solar cells do not fully behave as a black
absorber. Moreover, the total absorption factor A is
reduced to an eective absorption factor Aeff because of
the extraction of electrical energy
Aeff A  ge

with ge being the electrical eciency.

Both the total and the eective absorption factor of various types of solar cells were studied in detail by Santbergen et al. (2007), Santbergen and van Zolingen (2008),
Santbergen (2008), both by modelling and by measurements on test structures. For the various types of solar
cells, total absorption factors turned out to be in the range
of 8593%, whereas eective absorption factors were in the
range of 7082%.
In order to optimise the electrical and thermal yield of
PVT collectors and systems, detailed knowledge of the factors that determine these yields is required. So far a
detailed analysis of these factors has not been reported in
literature, though the basic models to do so are available,
as described above. Therefore the rst objective of the
work described here was to study these factors and to
understand the mechanisms that limit the yields compared
to systems with only PV modules or thermal collectors. The
second objective was to analyse whether the yield could be
improved by the use of anti-reective coatings and what
would be the eect of a low-emissivity coating on the
encapsulated solar cells. The third objective was to gain
insight in the dierences in both the electrical and thermal
yield if dierent types of solar cells are used.
The work was carried out with a system simulation
model, enabling to simulate the annual electrical and thermal yield of PVT systems for several combinations of PV
laminate and optical coatings. The PVT collector model
developed by Zondag et al. (2002) is part of this simulation

R. Santbergen et al. / Solar Energy 84 (2010) 867878

869

cover glass

tube
insulation
framing

PV laminate

electricity

sheet
tube
insulation

water

heat

Fig. 1. A one-cover at-plate sheet-and-tube PVT collector, converting incident solar irradiance into both electricity and heat. (Left) The complete
collector. (Right) A detailed cross-section.

model. Eective absorption factors obtained by the optical

model of Santbergen and van Zolingen (2008), Santbergen
(2008) were used as input for the PVT collector model.
First, a description of the PVT system considered is
given. Next, the models used for the simulation are introduced. Subsequently, the results of energy yield simulations
are presented together with an analysis of the loss mechanisms and measures to improve the yields. Finally the
results are discussed.
2. System description
The PVT system considered here is a system for domestic hot water heating and has a lay-out similar to the layout of a conventional system for solar domestic hot water
heating (see Fig. 2). The PVT system consists of a number
of sheet-and-tube PVT collectors of the type described in
the introduction. The typical dimensions and some other
parameters of the PVT system are given in Table 1. The
PVT collectors are connected to a storage tank. In the
study presented here, the tank volume was kept xed
(200 l) and the PVT collector area was varied.
The PV sub-system is a grid-connected PV system. The
PV laminates are connected to a PV inverter, converting

Thickness of cover glass

Emissivity of glass
Heat conduction through glass
Width of air layer
Heat conduction through air
Thickness of PV glass
Emissivity of PV laminate
Heat transfer PV laminate to sheet
Copper sheet thickness
Tube diameter
Tube spacing
Specic ow rate
Heat capacity of water
Heat transfer through back of col.
Collector surface area
Heat storage tank volume
Heat storage tank heat loss

inverter

DHW
(T=60C)

heat

lle
co
T

to grid

PV
pump

3.2 nm
0.9
0.9 W/mK
0.02 m
0.025 W/mK
3.0 mm
0.9
120 W/m2K
0.2 mm
0.01 m
0.095 m
10 kg/m2h
4200 J kg K
1 W/2K
3, 6 or 12 m2
200 l
1 W/K

the DC current into AC current. Crystalline silicon (c-Si)

PUM cells (Bultman et al., 1994; Weeber et al., 2006) were
selected as representatives for the c-Si solar cell technology.
Because PUM cells have their main current collection pattern at the back of the solar cell, only current collection ngers are present at the front side resulting in a front side

cto

rs

electricity

Table 1
Parameters of the PVT system.

heat
storage
for
DHW
(200l)

aux.
heater

from mains
(T=10C)

heat
exchanger

Fig. 2. Schematic overview of the PVT system for domestic hot water. Besides the PVT collector, the electrical sub-system consists of an inverter, the
thermal sub-system consists of a pump, heat exchanger, heat storage and auxiliary heater.

870

R. Santbergen et al. / Solar Energy 84 (2010) 867878

metallisation coverage of only 4.5% as compared with 8.0%

for conventional c-Si solar cells, having also bus bars at the
front. Reduced front metallisation coverage is favorable
for both the cell eciency and the absorption factor (Santbergen and van Zolingen, 2008). Two types of solar cells
were selected as representatives of the thin-lm solar cell
technology. One being the single-junction amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cell characterised by a relatively low electrical cell eciency (7%) and a relatively low absorption
factor (81%) (Santbergen et al., 2007; Santbergen, 2008).
The other being the copper indium gallium diselenide
(CuInx Ga1x Se2 ) solar cell with x 0:2 being a typical
composition for industrially produced solar cells and
abbreviated here as CIGS solar cell (Santbergen, 2008).
This cell has both a relatively high cell eciency (11%)
and high absorption factor (93%).
3. Modelling
The electrical yield and the thermal yield of a PVT system are the total amounts of solar energy supplied to the
grid as electrical energy or extracted from the storage tank
as thermal energy, respectively. Annual yields, i.e. the
summed total yields of one year, are considered. In order
to determine these yields, the performance of the PVT systems was simulated over an entire year. The year is divided
into time steps of one hour. For each time step the ow of
energy through the PVT system is calculated. This makes
the simulation model very exible and the model can therefore be used under a wide range of conditions. The submodels used for these calculations will be discussed below.
3.1. Optical model
The optical model is used to determine the AM1.5
absorption factor (A) of the PVT collector, i.e. the fraction
of incident solar irradiance absorbed in the PVT collector,
as opposed to being reected. The PVT collector is treated
as an optical multilayer system (Santbergen, 2008). In this
model, the extended net-radiation method is used to take
into account the eect of light-trapping in the solar cells
and in the PV laminate.
Because in the optical model layers can be added easily,
it is possible to study the eect on A of the addition of optical coatings. In this work, anti-reective and/or low-emissivity coatings on the cover glass or on the PV laminate
itself are considered. Note that A is one of the input parameters of the PVT collector model that will be described in
the next section.
Using the optical model the eects of spectrum and
angle of incidence on the absorption factor were investigated rst. It turned out that the absorption factor of cSi solar cells changes less than 1% if the air mass number
is changed from 1.5 to 5.6. Detailed analysis showed that
the absorption factor hardly changes in case the angle of
incidence remains between 0 and 60. This indicates that

the absorption factor of a PV laminate is more or less constant over a wide range of irradiation conditions.
3.2. PVT collector model
The thermal model for the PVT collector is a modied
version of a widely used solar thermal collector model
developed by Hottel and Whillier (Due and Beckman,
1991). de Vries (1998) incorporated electricity production
in this steady-state one-dimensional model, making it suitable for PVT collectors as well. Zondag (Zondag et al.,
2002, 2003) rened this model further and used it to analyse the performance of several at-plate PVT collector
designs. For the work presented here, this rened model
was used. The working principles of this model are now
summarised briey.
The objective of the model is to determine the thermal
eciency of a solar thermal PVT collector gcol
th . The task
of the model therefore is to simulate the heat ows inside
the collector in order to determine the amount of heat
being transferred to the water owing through the tube
and the amount lost to the ambient. The problem is simplied by stretching the serpentine geometry of the tube to a
straight tube as indicated in the left panel of Fig. 3. This
stretched out collector is then divided into a number of segments and the heat ow in each segment is analysed.
The cross-section of a single segment and the temperature nodes used in the model are indicated in the right
panel of Fig. 3. The heat resistance between the nodes is
determined, taking into account heat transport by convection, radiation and conduction (indicated by the arrows).
Nusselt relations are used to describe heat transport by natural and forced convection. Weather conditions, like solar
irradiance, ambient temperature, sky temperature (for radiation) and wind speed and the temperature of the water
owing into the tube are used as boundary conditions.
3.3. Heat storage tank model
The PVT system contains a form of heat storage. Here
sensible heat storage is considered in a storage tank lled
with water. As indicated in Fig. 4, the energy content of
the storage tank is aected by two ows. At one side there
is the collector loop, taking water from the bottom of the
tank and returning it at an elevated temperature. At the
other side there is the demand loop, taking water from
the top of the tank and replenishing it at a temperature
of 10 C. Note that it is compulsory, in practice, to separate
the water of both loops by means of a heat exchanger. Here
it is assumed that this heat exchanger is located outside the
tank on the collector side and is perfect in terms of
eectiveness.
A pump control strategy is implemented to ensure that
no water is pumped through the collector during unfavorable weather conditions (i.e. low irradiance) that would
lead to a loss of heat. Note that in case the heat supply
exceeds the heat demand, the temperature in the storage

R. Santbergen et al. / Solar Energy 84 (2010) 867878

871

solar
irradiance
final
segment

temperature
nodes
convection

radiation

conduction

1: cover glass (top)

2: cover glass (bottom)

convection

radiation

3: PV glass (top)
conduction

electricity

4: PV cells
5: sheet

conduction
conv.

conduction

6: tube
7: water

first
segment

Fig. 3. (Left) A simplication of the model by straightening the serpentine tube and thereby stretching out the collector. (Right) Cross-section of the
stretched out PVT collector with the energy ows and temperature nodes in the thermal model indicated.

T1
T2
T3
demand
loop

collector
loop

TN
Fig. 4. Schematic overview of the stratied heat storage tank divided into
segments of uniform temperature. Inter-segment ows are indicated.

model determines the degree of stratication. The simplest

case with only one tank segment N 1 corresponds to a
fully mixed tank of uniform temperature and the limiting
case of N ! 1 corresponds to a perfectly stratied tank.
According to Due and Beckman (1991), the case with
N 3 represents a reasonable compromise between the
two extreme cases and this value was used for the simulations presented here.
3.4. Electrical model
can be approxiThe electrical collector eciency gcol
e
mated by
col;STC
F IF T
gcol
e ge

tank could eventually reach the boiling temperature. To

prevent this dangerous situation, no water is pumped
through the collector as long as the temperature in the storage tank exceeds 95 C. Under this condition, known as
stagnation, no heat is extracted from the absorber and its
temperature could exceed 150. The eect of stagnation
on the solar cell temperature and therefore on the electrical
yield is taken into account by the model.
Heat storage tanks are designed to avoid mixing of
water of dierent temperatures in order to maintain good
thermal stratication. Having a stratied tank instead of
a tank of uniform temperature has two advantages. Firstly,
the water extracted at the demand side (top) has a relatively
high temperature, so less auxiliary heating is required. Secondly, the water extracted at the collector side (bottom) has
a relatively low-temperature, which is benecial for the eciency of the collector. Therefore the degree of the stratication is an important system parameter.
Storage tank models have been developed, of which the
multinode model is frequently used (Kleinbach et al.,
1993). In this model the storage tank is divided into N segments, each segment being characterised by a uniform temperature. The choice of the number of segments N in the

is the collectors eciency at STC (Standard

where gcol;STC
e
Test Conditions, 1000 W/m2 irradiance, AM1.5 spectrum
and 25 C cell temperature) and F I and F T describe the
dependence of the electrical eciency on irradiance I sun
and cell temperature T cell . F I is shown versus I sun in
Fig. 5. This is an empirical curve that depends on the precise technology considered.
Within the practical temperature range F T can be considered linear,
F T 1 bT cell  25  C

where b is the temperature coecient of the electrical eciency. For c-Si cells and CIGS cells b 0:0045= C and
for single-junction amorphous silicon cells b 0:002= C
(PVT Roadmap, 2005) indicating that the electrical eciency of the amorphous solar cells is less sensitive to temperature variation.
An inverter has a maximum input power P inv
max for converting direct current into alternating current. The inverter
eciency used in the model is given in Fig. 6 as a function
of the relative input power. Current dependent resistive
cable losses were taken into account. The cable resistance

872

R. Santbergen et al. / Solar Energy 84 (2010) 867878

was chosen such that the resistive loss is 2% of the DC

input power at an irradiance of 1000 W/m2.

3.5. Input data

The meteorological data of the Dutch test reference year
for de Bilt were used as input for the model. This data contains the hourly values of the ambient temperature, solar
irradiation and wind speed for a full year. The irradiation
dened by the test reference year for the south facing plane
with a tilt of 45 considered here, is 1100 kWh/m2y.
The AM1.5 absorption factor was used throughout the
whole year, implying that deviations from the AM1.5 spectrum were not taken into account. In addition, it was
assumed that the absorption factor is not angle dependent,

but equal to the absorption factor for normal incidence (see

also Section 3.1).
For the domestic hot water demand, a standard withdrawal pattern was used. After correction for the heat loss
in the pipes between storage tank and water tap, the eective hot water withdrawal is 139 l water per day at 60 C
(Zondag et al., 2001). This daily pattern is repeated for
every day of the year, amounting to an annual thermal
energy demand of 2960 kWh (10.6 GJ).
4. Results
The results presented in this section are calculated using
the model described in Section 3, assuming Dutch climatic
conditions. In Sections 4.14.5 systems with PVT collectors
with c-Si solar cells are considered.
4.1. The energy yields of a reference PVT system

1.2
1

FI ()

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2

cSi
aSi

0
0

200

400

600

800

1000

solar irradiance I sun (W/m )

Fig. 5. The solar irradiance factor F I as a function of I sun .

Table 2 shows the annual electrical and thermal system

yield of a 6 m2 PVT collector with crystalline silicon (c-Si)
PUM solar cells and a 200 l storage tank. In this case no
additional coatings are applied. Because of the nite packing density q of 90% of the solar cells in the laminate and
because of the presence of the cover glass with a transmittance seff 92:5%, the electrical cell eciency gecell;STC of
15.52% is reduced to an electrical collector eciency
of 12.97%. The presence of the cover glass also
gcol;STC
e
reduces the cells absorption factor Acell;STC of 87.4% to a
collector absorption factor Acol;STC of 81.0%, where also
the absorption of light in the narrow spacing between the
cells is taken into account. The annual electrical system ecol;STC
because of the varciency gsys
e of 9.96% is lower than ge
ious electrical system losses (i.e. low irradiance loss, cell
temperature loss, cable loss and inverter loss). The annual
thermal eciency gsys
th of 24.3% is not only determined by
the absorption factor Acol;STC , but also by heat losses to
the ambient by radiation and convection.

4.2. The eect of system sizing

inverter efficiency (%)

0.98
0.96

For the standard conguration just described, the inuence of system sizing on the annual electrical and thermal

0.94
0.92

Table 2
The annual electrical and thermal system yield of the reference PVT
system with 6 m2 PVT collector with crystalline silicon PUM solar cells
and a 200 l storage tank. The related eciencies and absorption factors are
presented as well.

0.9
0.88
0.86
0.84
0.82
0.8

0.2

0.4

inv

0.6

/P

0.8

inv
max

Fig. 6. Eciency of the inverter as a functions of the relative input power

P inv =P inv
max .

gcell;STC
e
gcol;STC
e
Acell;STC
Acol;STC
Ecol
e
Ecol
th
sys
ge
sys
gth
SF

15.52%
12.97%
87.4%
81.0%
655 kWh/y
1599 kWh/y
9.96%
24.3%
54.3%

R. Santbergen et al. / Solar Energy 84 (2010) 867878

system eciency was investigated. In order to do so, the

collector area was varied, see Table 3, keeping all other
parameters constant, including the storage tank volume
(200 l) and the thermal load. With increasing collector area
the thermal solar fraction (SF) increases, as one would
expect. However, both the annual electrical and thermal
system eciency decrease with increasing collector area.
The electrical eciency decreases because the storage tank
temperatures and therewith the solar cell temperatures
reach higher values with increasing collector area. The
thermal eciency drops because higher uid temperatures
result also in higher thermal losses.
4.3. The eect of optical coatings
In order to investigate the possibilities to increase the
electrical and thermal yield of PVT collectors, the eect
of the application of anti-reective coatings and of lowemissivity (low-e) coatings was considered. Four PVT collector congurations were used, see Fig. 7. Conguration A
is the standard conguration without additional coatings.
Conguration B has a low-e coating on the PV laminate.
Conguration C has an anti-reective coating on the cover
glass (both sides) and on the PV laminate. In conguration
D, the low-e coating of conguration B and the anti-reective coatings of conguration C are combined.
The anti-reective coating considered here is a single
layer SiO2 coating, deposited by a dip coating technique
(Hammarberg and Roos, 2003). For the low-emissivity
coating, SnO2:F was used, which is widely used as a lowe coating (Hammarberg and Roos, 2003; Granqvist,
2007). Note that very thin metal lms could be used as

873

low-e coating as well. However, because of their relatively

low transmittance in the near infrared (where c-Si solar
cells have a high spectral response), these metal coatings
are less suitable for application in PVT collectors. Applying
a 300 nm SnO2:F coating with a uorine doping concentration of 3  1020 cm3 will reduce the emissivity of the PV
laminate from 80% to about 20% (Haitjema, 1989). In
Table 4 the electrical eciency and the absorption factor
at STC are given together with the emissivity, for the various congurations. These parameters are calculated using
the optical model and are used as input for the annual yield
simulations.
The annual electrical and thermal system eciencies are
considered for solar domestic hot water systems with a
200 l storage tank with collector type A, B, C and D.
PVT collector areas of 3, 6 and 12 m2 were selected respectively. In practice, typical collector areas are in the range of
36 m2 for solar domestic hot water heating, 12 m2 was
selected as an extreme case. The results are presented in
Fig. 8. The annual thermal system eciency is plotted versus the annual electrical eciency.
It can be seen that the addition of a low-e coating to the
PV laminate (compare conguration A and B), increases
Table 4
, the collector absorption factor
The electrical collector eciency gcol;STC
e
Acol;STC and the emissivity e of the absorber in the congurations A, B, C
and D.
Conguration

%
gcol;STC
e

Acol;STC %

e %

A
B
C
D

12.97
11.84
14.19
13.67

81.0
76.9
87.9
86.7

85
20
85
20

Table 3
The annual electrical and thermal system eciencies for a PVT collector
system with a 200 l storage tank for various PVT collector areas.

Tap water heating

45

PVT collector area

6m

10.34
34.5
38.5

9.96
24.3
54.3

12 m2

40

9.53
14.6
65.3

3m 2

35

C
A

sys
(%)
th

gsys
e %
gsys
th %
SF (%)

3 m2

30

D
2

6m
A

25

20

D
15 B
10

12m 2
C

A
9

10
sys

Fig. 7. Four PVT collector congurations (drawing not to scale). (A)

Without coatings. (B) Low-emissivity coating on the laminate. (C) AR
coatings on both sides of the cover glass and on the PV laminate. (D) AR
coatings on both sides of the cover glass and a sandwich of low-emissivity
coating and AR coating on the PV laminate.

11

12

(%)

Fig. 8. The annual electrical system eciency versus the annual thermal
eciency for hot water heating systems with PVT collectors with c-Si
PUM cells and coating congurations A, B, C and D, for various collector
areas.

874

R. Santbergen et al. / Solar Energy 84 (2010) 867878

the annual thermal eciency somewhat, but reduces the

annual electrical eciency by more than 1% absolute.
However, adding anti-reective coatings (compare conguration A and C) is benecial for both the annual electrical
eciency, increasing by almost 1% absolute, and the
thermal eciency. Having both a low-e coating and
anti-reective coatings (conguration D) results in the
highest thermal eciency. The electrical eciency, however, is not as high as in the case with only anti-refection
coatings (conguration C) and is in the 6 and the 12 m2
cases even lower than in the case without any coatings
(conguration A).

respectively). The results of this study are displayed by presenting the relative annual electrical and thermal system
eciencies in comparison with the corresponding annual
eciencies of the pure systems, see Fig. 9. The causes of
the reduced thermal eciencies are displayed as well. Note
that in order to make a fair comparison, the eciency of
the PVT systems is presented relative to the eciency of
pure systems having anti-reective coatings as well.
In all cases displayed, 3.5% of the relative electrical eciency is lost because of the presence of the glass cover. In
case no low-e coating is applied (conguration C), the additional temperature loss introduced by the presence of the
cover is 4.212.2% depending on the system sizing. In case
a low-e coating is applied on the absorber an additional
temperature loss ranging from 1.8% to 7.1% is introduced.
Moreover, the low-e coating introduces an extra reection
(2.8%) and absorption (0.9%) loss. The extra reection is
caused by the high refractive index (n  2) low-e coatings
have compared to glass (n  1:5).
In the systems without a low-e coating the two main
mechanisms that cause the reduction of the relative annual
thermal eciency are the high emissivity and the fact that

4.4. The inherent losses in PVT collectors and systems

In order to study the inherent losses in PVT collectors
and systems, both their electrical and thermal yield were
compared with the corresponding yields of a pure PV
and a pure thermal system. In this part of the study the
glass cover of the PVT collectors has an anti-reective coating on both sides and PV absorbers with and without a
low-e coating are considered (conguration D and C

Electricity
100
3.5%

95

3.5%

3.5%

4.2%

3.5%

3.5%

3.5%

2.8%

2.8%

2.8%

abs. loss lowe

7.9%

90

transm. loss cover

12.2
%

0.9%

add. temp. loss cover

4.2%

add. temp. loss low e

1.8%

7.9%
12.2
%

85
4.5%

80
7.1%

75
70

100
%

92.3
%

88.6
%

84.3
%

12

86.8
%

80.4
%

73.5
%

12

65
PV

PVT (conf. D)

PVT (conf. C)
Heat
100

higher emis. loss

5.1%
8.2%

95

11.8
%
1.7%

90
2.5%

1.2%

lower abs. loss

5.1%

extraction elec. loss

1.8%

1.1%
2.9%

3.4%

0.6%

0.9%

3.4%

5.8%
9.3%

7.0%

85
9.6%

80
75
70

100
%

76.1
%

83.1
%

88.6
%

12

85.5
%

91.2
%

95.1
%

12

65
T

PVT (conf. C)

PVT (conf. D)

Fig. 9. The relative electrical eciency (top) and relative thermal eciency (bottom) of PVT systems for domestic hot water with collector surface areas of
3, 6 and 12 m2. PVT conguration C has anti-reective coatings and PVT conguration D has both a low-emissivity and anti-reective coatings.

R. Santbergen et al. / Solar Energy 84 (2010) 867878

4.5. The trade-o between electrical and thermal eciency

The increase of the thermal eciency by means of the
low-e coating is realised, at the cost of a signicant reduction of the electrical eciency. This implies that a trade-o
exists between electrical and thermal system eciency. In
order to investigate this trade-o in more detail, the thickness of the low-e coating was varied in order to vary the
emissivity. The relation between the emissivity and the
thickness of the SnO2:F low-e coating was derived from
data from Haitjema (1989). The resulting electrical and
thermal system eciencies are presented in Fig. 10. The
thermal eciency increases with increasing low-e coating
thickness as one would expect. Because the emissivity
increases hardly any more above a thickness of 300 nm,
the thermal system eciency tends to saturate. The electrical eciency decreases with increasing low-e coating thickness because of increasing cell temperatures and a slight
increase of the absorption in the low-e coating.
4.6. The inuence of the solar cell technology
The inuence of the use of various solar cell technologies
on the electrical and thermal yield of PVT systems was
investigated as well. Yield dierences are expected because
of dierences in the eective absorption factor (resulting
from both dierences in the absorption factor and in the
cell eciencies) and because of dierences in the tempera-

()
0.85

0.40

0.24

0.2

0.2

0.2

10.8

30
C

10.6

29
28

10.2

27

10

th

sys (%)

sys

(%)

10.4

electrical energy is withdrawn from the collector. In case a

low-e coating is applied (conguration D), the withdrawal
of electrical energy is the main mechanism for the reduction
of the relative annual thermal eciency.
Typical PVT collector areas for solar domestic hot water
applications are in the range of 36 m2. If a collector area
of 6 m2 is considered, then in case C (with only anti-reective coatings) 88.6% of the annual electrical eciency of a
pure PV system is obtained, whereas at the same time only
83.1% of the annual thermal eciency. Application of a
low-e coating (case D) enhances the relative thermal eciency up to 91.2%, but reduces the relative electrical eciency to only 80.4% at the same time. It can be
concluded that both the electrical and thermal eciency
of a typical PVT collector are inherently about 1020%
lower compared to separate conventional PV and thermal
collector systems.
Note that though the thermal eciency of the PVT system decreases with increasing collector area, it increases
relative to the eciency of the thermal reference system.
This is caused by the fact that the amount of heat produced
by a thermal system with a large collector surface area
exceeds the heat demand, especially in the summer season.
This implies that, under those conditions, the system eciency is much less aected by the eciency of the collector
used. Therefore, in case of larger collector areas, the thermal yield of a PVT system will approach the yield of the
thermal reference system.

875

26
C

9.8
9.6

25

100

200

300

400

24
500

thickness of lowe coating (nm)

Fig. 10. The electrical and thermal system eciencies versus the thickness
of the SnO:F low-emissivity coating applied to the PV laminate (coating
conguration D). The eciencies of the case without low emissivity
coating (conguration C) is indicated as well. A system for domestic hot
water with a 6 m2 collector is considered.

ture coecient of the cell eciency of the various

technologies.
The standard system described above has a c-Si PUM
solar cell laminate as the absorber in the PVT collector.
The energy yield of systems with PVT collectors having
conguration A with an a-Si thin-lm laminate and a CIGS
thin-lm laminate were investigated as well. An overview
of the cell eciencies of the various solar cell technologies
is given in Table 5. Cell eciency, laminate eciency and
collector eciency at STC are distinguished, taking into
account cell packing density and optical losses caused by
the glass cover. Both the annual electrical eciency and
the performance ratio (PR) are presented. The PR is the
ratio between the annual electrical collector eciency and
the PV laminate eciency at STC. The PR takes into
account all the losses that occur on the system level. The
concept of the PR makes it possible to compare the electrical performance of systems with dierent cell eciencies at
STC and in this case to compare pure PV systems and PVT
systems with various solar cell technologies. The PV system
with the a-Si solar cell laminate has the highest PR because
the a-Si solar cell has the lowest temperature coecient of
the cell eciency and the most favorable low light intensity
behaviour. Both the PV systems with the c-Si solar cells
and with the CIGS solar cells have a similar PR, because
of the same temperature coecient and because of the
same low light intensity behaviour. In the case of a transition from a PV system to a system with PVT collectors the
PR is best preserved in the case of a-Si, as can be concluded
from the ratio PRPVT =PRPV in Table 5. This turns out to be
the case because of the lower temperature coecient.
The thermal system eciencies are given in Table 6
together with both the absorption factor, the electrical

876

R. Santbergen et al. / Solar Energy 84 (2010) 867878

Table 5
2
The annual electrical system eciency gsys
e and the performance ratio PRPVT for PVT systems of 6 m with PVT collectors with various solar cell types.
c-Si PUM
a-Si
CIGS

(%)
gcell;STC
e

gelam;STC (%)

gcol;STC
%
e

gsys
e %

PRPVT %

PRPV %

PRPVT
PRPV

b (%/C)

15.52
7.00
11.00

13.97
6.30
9.90

12.97
5.80
9.11

9.96
4.88
6.84

0.708
0.775
0.691

0.825
0.860
0.82

0.859
0.901
0.843

0.45
0.20
0.45

Table 6
The annual thermal system eciency gsys
th for PVT systems with PVT collectors with various solar cell types.
c-Si PUM
a-Si
CIGS

Acell;STC %

Acol;STC %

gcol;STC
%
e

Acol;STC
%
eff

gsys
th %

87.4
81.4
93.5

81.0
74.9
86.0

12.97
5.80
9.11

68.0
69.1
76.9

19.4
19.3
22.0

collector eciency and the eective absorption factor. In

case of CIGS, the highest thermal system eciency is
obtained, because the eective absorption factor is the
highest.
A more detailed comparison between the PRs of both
PV and PVT systems with both c-Si and a-Si solar cells
is given in Fig. 11. This gure also displays the magnitude of the various loss mechanisms that determine these
PRs. The temperature induced electrical losses are much
smaller in the case of a-Si compared to c-Si. In addition
the optical loss induced by the glass cover is shown as
well.
5. Discussion

as well. The presence of a low-e coating will increase the

uid temperature further at a given system sizing.
The inherent electrical loss (called additional temperature loss) caused by the higher cell temperatures imposed
by the heat collecting uid in the PVT systems investigated,
turns out to be signicant (see Fig. 9) especially in case of a
relatively large collector area compared to the storage tank
size. The eect is even more pronounced if a low-emissivity
coating is being used (see Fig. 9). The application of solar
cells with a low-temperature coecient of the eciency b,
like amorphous silicon based thin-lm solar cells

(b 0:20%= C) and HIT crystalline silicon solar cells

(b 0:30%= C, Ziner et al. (2008)), is therefore favorable if conservation of electrical yield is important.

5.1. Electrical yield

5.2. Thermal yield

In systems with single-glazed sheet-and-tube PVT collectors, the uid temperatures can become quite high, especially in systems used for tap-water heating. The
occurring temperatures are also inuenced by the sizing
of the system i.e. the ratio between the (PVT) collector area
and the thermal load. The storage tank size will play a role

As shown in Fig. 9, the reduction of the thermal eciency of a PVT system with respect to a system with conventional thermal collectors is caused for a large part by
the high emissivity of the absorber and the fact that the
total absorption factor is reduced by the withdrawal of
electrical energy to a lower eective absorption factor. This

cSi

aSi

Performance Ratio (%)

100

90

5.5%

5.0%

low irradiance

7.7%

7.2%

inverter & cab.

4.3%

9.2%

temperature

7.8%

optical

3.9%

3.6%

low irradiance

7.9%

7.3%

inverter & cab.

2.2%

3.7%

temperature

7.9%

optical

80
82.5%

86.0%
77.5%

70
70.8%
60

PV

PVT

PV

PVT

Fig. 11. An overview of the performance ratio of a PV and a PVT system, both with c-Si and a-Si laminates. The loss mechanisms are indicated as well. A
PVT system for domestic hot water with a collector surface area of 6 m2 without additional coatings is considered. The PV module area is 6 m2 as well.

R. Santbergen et al. / Solar Energy 84 (2010) 867878

work shows, that if a low-e coating is applied on the absorber, the thermal eciency is increased substantially
whereas the electrical eciency is reduced substantially at
the same time. This implies that there exists an inherent
trade-o between electrical and thermal eciency.
The dierences in the total absorption factor of the various solar cells are relatively small. Typical values for the total
absorption factor of crystalline silicon solar cells are around
87% (Santbergen and van Zolingen, 2008), whereas for most
thin-lm solar cells they are around 90% (Santbergen et al.,
2007; Santbergen, 2008). In future, the total absorption factor of both crystalline and thin-lm solar cells will grow to
about 91% (Santbergen, 2008). By the application of an
anti-reective coating on the glass encapsulating the cell, this
can be enhanced further to about 94% , which is close to the
absorption factor of the absorber in a conventional thermal
collector (95%). More important, however, are the relatively
large dierences in the cell eciencies of the various solar cell
technologies, being about 16% for crystalline silicon and
about 10% for thin-lm solar cells, currently. Also in future
this dierence will continue to exist. Eciencies of 2025%
are expected for crystalline silicon solar cells, whereas for
thin-lm solar cells eciencies around 15% are expected
(Photovoltaic Technology Platform, 2007). This implies that
the eective absorption factor of thin-lm solar cells will
remain 510% higher than of crystalline silicon solar cells.
5.3. Avoided primary energy
The main reason for the reduced (eective) absorption
factor is the withdrawal of electrical energy. This is an
inherent loss mechanism, reducing the thermal eciency.
However, from an electrical point of view a high electrical
eciency is desirable. In order to compare the total yield
(electrical and thermal) between various PVT systems, the
avoided primary energy can be considered. This means that
the electrical energy (Ee ) and thermal energy (Eth ) are converted into primary energy before they are added
Eprim

Ee
gprim!e

Eth
gprim!th

where gprim!e and gprim!th are the conversion eciencies for

converting primary energy into electrical and thermal energy, respectively, in the conventional way. For gprim!e
the power generation eciency of a conventional power
plant is used, which typically is 40% (Coventry, 2003).
For gprim!th the thermal eciency of a conventional gasred domestic hot water system is used, which typically is
65% (Bosselaar and Gerlagh, 2006). In Table 7 the annual
yield of several PV systems is given in terms of avoided primary energy. It can be seen that the PVT system with the cSi PUM laminate has the highest avoided primary energy
of more than 600 kWh/m2y. The avoided primary energy
caused by the higher electrical eciency of the c-Si PUM
laminate outweighs the loss in primary energy caused on
the thermal side, resulting from the lower eective absorption factor of this laminate.

877

Table 7
The avoided primary energy Ecol
tot;prim for PVT systems with PVT collectors
with various solar cell types. The avoided primary energy from the
col
electrical part Ecol
e;prim and thermal part Eth;prim are also given individually.
Ecol
Ecol
Ecol
Ecol
Ecol
e
th
e;prim
th;prim
tot;prim
(kWh/m2y) (kWh/m2y) (kWh/m2y) (kWh/m2y) (kWh/m2y)
c-Si
109.6
PUM
a-Si
53.7
CIGS
71.28

273.9

213.4

328.3

602.2

134.2
178.2

212.3
242.0

326.6
372.3

460.8
550.5

6. Concluding remarks
Both the annual electrical and thermal eciency of systems with covered sheet-and-tube PVT collectors are about
15% (relative) lower compared to separate conventional PV
and conventional thermal collector systems. The loss of
electrical eciency is mainly caused by the relatively high
uid temperature. This temperature is inuenced strongly
by the system sizing. The loss of thermal eciency is caused
both by the high emissivity of the PV laminate and the
withdrawal of electrical energy.
Both the electrical and the thermal eciency can be
improved by the application of anti-reective coatings.
To obtain a high electrical eciency, not only a high cell
eciency at Standard Test Conditions, but also a low-temperature coecient are required. The thermal eciency can
be improved by the application of a low-e coating, however, at the cost of a reduced electrical eciency.
The model developed here is very suitable for PVT system design optimisation. For the further development of
systems with PVT collectors the work should be extended
to other PVT collector designs and other climate zones.
In addition, the development of a yield cost function would
be an important tool to optimise the PVT collector system
as a whole and the PVT collector in particular.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Energy research Centre of the
Netherlands (ECN) and SenterNovem for their nancial
support.
References
Bosselaar, L., Gerlagh, T., 2006. Protocol Monitoring Duurzame Energie,
update 2006, SenterNovem, the Netherlands.
Bultman, J.H., Weeber, A.W., Brieko, M.W., Hoornstra, J., Burgers, A.R.,
Dijkstra, J.A., Tip, A.C., module, Pin-up, 1994. Pin-up module, a design
for higher eciency, easy module manufacturing and attractive
appearance. Proceedings of the 12th European Photovoltaic Solar
Energy Conference. Amsterdam, the Netherlands, pp. 12101213.
Chow, T.T., He, W., Ji, J., 2006. Hybrid photovoltaic-thermosyphon water
heating system for residential application. Solar Energy 80, 298306.
Coventry, J.S., 2003. Development of an approach to compare the value
of electrical and thermal output from a domestic PV/thermal system.
Solar Energy 75, 6372.
Coventry, J.S., 2005. Performance of a concentrating photovoltaic/
thermal collector. Solar Energy 78, 211222.

878

R. Santbergen et al. / Solar Energy 84 (2010) 867878

de Vries, D.W., 1998. Design of a Photovoltaic/Thermal Combi-panel, PhD

thesis. Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Due, J.A., Beckman, W.J., 1991. Solar Energy Thermal Processes. Wiley
and sons, New York.
Granqvist, C.G., 2007. Transparent conductors as solar energy materials:
a panoramic overview. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 91,
15291598.
Haitjema, 1989. Spectrally Selective Tinoxide and Indiumoxide, PhD
thesis. Delft University, Delft, the Netherlands.
Hammarberg, E., Roos, A., 2003. Antireection treatment of lowemittting glazing for energy ecient windows with high visible
transmittance. Thin Solid Films 442, 222226.
Kleinbach, E.M., Beckmann, W.A., Klein, S.A., 1993. Performance study
of one-dimensional models for stratied thermal storage tanks. Solar
Energy 50, 155166.
Photovoltaic Technology Platform, 2007. A strategic Research Agenda for
Photovoltaic
Solar
Energy
Technology.
Available
from:
www.eupvplatform.org.
PVT Roadmap, 2005. A European guide for the development and market
introduction of PV-thermal technology. In: Zondag, H.A., Bakker,
M., van Helden, W.G.J. (Eds.), Report EU-Project PV Catapult.
Available from: www.pvtforum.org.
Saitoh, H., Hamada, Y., Kubota, H., Nakamura, M., Ochifuji, K.,
Yokoyama, S., Nagano, K., 2003. Field experiments and analysis on
a hybrid solar collector. Applied Thermal Engineering 23, 2089
2105.
Santbergen, R., 2008. Optical Absorption Factor of Solar Cells for PVT
Systems, PhD thesis. Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Santbergen, R., van Zolingen, R.J.Ch., 2008. The absorption factor of

crystalline silicon PV cells: a numerical and experimental study. Solar
Energy Materials and Solar Cells 92, 432444.
Santbergen, R., Goud, J.M., van Zolingen, R.J.Ch., 2007. An optical
model for the absorption factor of thin-lm photovolatic cells. In:
Proceedings of the 22nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy
Conference, Milan, Italy, pp. 265270.
Smeltink, J.H.F., Blakers, A.W., 2007. A hybrid PV-thermal linear microconcentrator for domestic application. In: Proceedings of the 22nd European
Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference, Milan, Italy, pp. 144147.
Weeber, A.W., Kinderman, R., de Jong, P.C., Tool, C.J.J., 2006. 17% cell
eciencies on large back-contact multi-crystalline silicon solar cells.
In: Proceedings of the 21st European Photovoltaic Solar Energy
Conference, Dresden, Germany.
Ziner, B., Schubert, M.B., Werner, J.H., Makrides, G., Georghiou, G.E.,
2008. Temperature and intensity dependence of 13 photovoltaic
technologies. In: Proceedings of the 23rd European Photovoltaic Solar
Energy Conference, Valencia, Spain.
Zondag, H.A., 2008. Flat-plate PV-thermal collectors and systems a
review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 12, 891959.
Zondag, H.A., M Jong, M.J., van Helden, W.G.J., 2001. Development
and applications for PV thermal. Proceedings of the 17th European
Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference. Munich, Germany.
Zondag, H.A., de Vries, D.W., van Helden, W.G.J., van Zolingen, R.J.C.,
van Steenhoven, A.A., 2002. The thermal and electrical yield of a PVthermal collector. Solar Energy 72, 113128.
Zondag, H.A., de Vries, D.W., van Helden, W.G.J., van Zolingen, R.J.C.,
van Steenhoven, A.A., 2003. The yield of dierent combined PVthermal collector designs. Solar Energy 74, 253269.